Toronto International Film Festival: Trading blames over poor showing

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Ms. Patricia Bala

Dr. Wurim Dadu

Outside of the films that were selected for the ‘City-to-City’ programme, the Indian film agency mounted an expansive pavilion, where it provided answers to enquiries about the Indian film industry. Apart from footing the bills of some delegates, including filmmakers, to attend, the government facilitated private screenings for some films that were outside the TIFF showcase and equally hosted a number of industry meetings between Indian filmmakers and prospective investors and sales agent.

This was not the case with Nigeria at TIFF 2016, though Nollywood was in focus this year. Practitioners, who attended the previous editions and saw how other countries promoted their industry, were angered by the let down.

Reacting to these allegations, the leadership of the two government agencies responsible for the regulation, promotion and development of Nigerian motion picture industry – Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) have responded to the allegations.

The Public Affairs officer of the NFC, Mrs. Ngozi Udoh, speaking on behalf of the corporation, said, “Normally film festivals are appropriated in our yearly budget, it is not a hidden thing if you go online and google the NFC’s budget, you will see it, government has not been making provision for film festivals, that is the truth of the matter and there is no way we can go, it is a capital intensive thing. It is not that we don’t know about the festival like it was reported, it is in our calendar, it was captured in the yearly budget of the film corporation, even we wanted to go, but if the money is not there, how can we go,” she asked.

Udoh continued, “besides, none of the practitioners reached out to us for assistance, not one person. These people who are talking know that when it was captured in the budget, we used to go with them. If the festival was captured in the budget and we didn’t go, then they can say that, but with all our good intentions it was not there, even the minister wanted to go, he had reached out to our MD that he would want to go, but it was not budgeted for.”

Udoh added, “Participation for international film festivals is always budgeted for and it comes under capital, which we have to defend in the National Assembly, so, if its not there, its not there and there is nothing we can do about it. We are hoping that it would be approved and passed in our 2017 budget.”

The Director General of the NFVCB, Patricia Bala, simply said, “The organization could not participate, because there were no funds.”

The industry practitioners, however, feel differently about the agencies’ excuses. One of the senior practitioners that was at the festival and chose to remain anonymous, said, “It is part of their responsibility in developing the industry and so, huge events like this, one way or the other, they should plug into it so that Nigeria, invariably practitioners in the industry will benefit from it.

He continued, “Whatsoever reason they have, has taken us back. Thank God for those who supported us like the Lagos State government and the efforts put in by the individual filmmakers to attend, because such a festival is where you network, meet people and strike deals and more so, this year, our industry was showcased by one of the biggest festivals in the world, the City-to-City programme focused on Nigeria this year, the one last year was on London, there was one on Mumbai.

They focus on one city each year and for the agency in Nigeria not to have participated is an aberration.”

“I am aware that the NFC went for the film festival in India. They had gone for some festivals that are of no benefit to the country, but a festival like TIFF is a festival of note, it is among the first three, one of the top most and when they are focusing on Nollywood, then, you will expect that agencies like NFC and NFVCB will be involved in it.”

He added, “I am not saying money is available like it use to be but they need to prioritize and focus on Nollywood. It behoves on them to have an in-depth understanding of what the festivals are all about and know which ones are of note. I am not condemning anybody, what I am saying is that at the beginning of the year, you look at a festival liked the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto international film festival, Berlin, Cartage, Venice, you know there are festivals like that. And there are some smaller festivals they may want to encourage yes, money is the issue, but if they prioritize it will be better.”

In conclusion, he said: “Eight films were showcased at the festival; the said bodies heard about this, did they contact any of the filmmakers that were invited? We need to begin to celebrate our own. Those films and the filmmakers were being celebrated in Toronto on a global scale. The Canadian Consulate hosted them here in Nigeria before they departed. Even if they cannot afford to go to Toronto, did any of them think we should hosts these filmmakers to celebrate them? He asked.

“Those festivals have made their mark, we are the ones that need TIFF they don’t need us. It is lack of understanding on their part and their respective boundary that is what I see there. The agencies need to do a lot more, that is if they are doing anything at all.”

Executive Chairman, African Creative Economy Advisory Group Madu Chikwendu however, differed from some of his colleagues. He believes that the industry has not lived up to expectations like agencies of government in charge of it. The first question you should ask according to Madu is, “did the industry present an agenda to the film corporation and to censors board? To the best of my opinion, no. Secondly there are larger issues at play here you need to ask yourself what is the budget that has been allocated to the two bodies?

Beyond the budget, what has been appropriated? So, where then do you expect them to raise money to attend? One thing we all know civil servants like to travel, there is no way they will have the money and not participate at TIFF. Again, why can’t the industry itself propose to partner with the agencies why is it that people sort corporate funding by themselves and left out these bodies? To my opinion the bodies can’t really be blamed, because the industry itself has not taken them to task.”

Madu continued, “I will like them to present documents and show that this is the proposal we made to these bodies and they did not respond. When I was president of AMP, there was nothing I asked from government that they didn’t give so let stop this attitude of looking for who to blame.”

Re-enforcing the point of funds, Madu said, “The truth is that these bodies are under funded, NFVCB for instance, I was shocked to hear they have only N60 thousand monthly for their operations, these are things we should address before we can even start attacking them. Now 2017 Cannes is coming up, no agenda has been presented to any of the bodies by the time it is May, we will say they didn’t go to the festival.